Russian Railways says no interruptions in railway communications between Russia and Crimea

MOSCOW, March 09, 20:41 /ITAR-TASS/. Railway communications between Russia and Crimea are not interrupted, spokespeople for the Russian State Railway Corporation RZD told Itar-Tass Sunday.

There are no restrictions either on the trains belonging to the RZD or to Ukrzaliaznytsia (the Ukrainian State Railway Transport Administration) bound from Russia to the destinations in Crimea or the other way round.

Also, there are no restrictions on the reservations or sales of tickets to and from Crimea, the spokespeople said.

Ukrzalianytsia officials said earlier in the day the booking and sales of tickets to destinations in Crimea had been suspended. CNN said in a report from Kiev quoting sources at the corporation the ticketing system would not resume operations before March 17.

A spokesman for the administration said tickets for trains bound for Crimea would not be available as of Monday, March 10.

Sunday, passenger trains between Crimea and Kiev were cruising on schedule and the railway inquiries desk told Itar-Tass a number of seat on Kiev-Simferopol train No. 12 were on offer.

The administration officials did not clarify the causes of suspension of ticketing but referred to unspecified ‘technicalities’.

However, reports came Sunday night on a short-term failure of the system of reservations, with railway officials saying the failure had been eliminated and the booking and sales of tickets to Crimea would resume within a few hours.

Ukrzaliaznytsia offered apologies to the customers for brief inconveniences.